Currently, a variety of techniques are available for generating data while a person is writing by hand. In the present application this relates to generating an electronic representation of the characters that the person is writing by hand.
Such a prior-art technique implies that the person uses a specific electronic device which is provided with a screen on which the person can write directly using a handwriting device in the form of an elongate instrument. The electronic device is constructed so as to be able to detect and store, as said data, the characters that the person is writing on the screen. The device is also capable of reproducing the characters on the screen so that the person may see what she is writing.
Another prior-art technique implies that the person uses a handwriting device in the form of an ordinary pen and writes on an ordinary sheet of paper. However, the sheet of paper is specific insofar as it is provided with a position code coding a plurality of positions on the surface. The positions are located close to each other. The pen is also specific insofar as it comprises a device which detects the position code while the person is writing with the pen. The detected positions are stored, as said data, and can then be processed as any electronic data and can, for instance, be transferred to a computer or some other electronic device, for instance via short range radio, and be further processed as desired.
In addition to said further processing of data, the person who is writing sometimes wants to edit data directly and with the aid of the handwriting device. Then there is a need for a simple and clear manner of marking what is to be edited. The existing methods are based on a closed curve being drawn round the text to be edited. Examples of this are disclosed in EP-615,209 B1 where a variant means that a closed curve is drawn using a special end of the pen and, thus, a deleting function is activated that deletes all data representing positions inside the curve. Another variant means that two diagonally arranged corner points of a rectangle are indicated by means of the ordinary writing end of the pen. All data representing positions within the rectangle that is made up by the corner points is thus marked.
The prior-art methods are relatively complicated and require the user to be very accurate when performing the marking and also to carry out the marking in a special manner.